Dieter Oehms clearly knows that he is onto a good thing with
Ring cycles from German opera houses. Both Hamburg and Frankfurt
have cycles coming out on the Oehms label, not to mention a
recent Tristan from Vienna, and a Wagner highlights disc
from Bratislava. Wagner sells, or rather the idea of respectable
performers recording Wagner for a label known for its high audio
standards sells. My understanding though, is that most if not
all of these productions are recorded in-house then sold as
more or less a finished product to the label, so audio standards
are unlikely to be uniformly high.
I mention all this because I have recently been reviewing the
Rheingold from Frankfurt on the same label, and while
both are good, this Hamburg Siegfried doesn't quite come
up to the standards set in Frankfurt, either technically or
artistically. This is probably an unfair comparison though,
because the Rheingold is one of the best Wagner recordings
I have heard in recent years. And this Siegfried certainly
has its merits. The cast is good, the orchestra is precise and
clear, and the interpretation is coherent and symphonic.
Simone Young is clearly on top of this score. She keeps impeccable
balance in the orchestra, seems to communicate well with the
singers on the stage, and finds some real drama for the more
turbulent sections. I'm not completely convinced though by her
interpretation. The music making often seems very safe and the
tempos often feel rigid. Wagner always requires a balance between
dramatic urgency and motivic clarity, but Young almost always
errs in favour of the latter.
The cast is good, and the dramatic characterisations from many
of the singers compensate for the lack of excitement from the
pit. It is a score dominated by bass and baritone roles, and
all are impressively sinister. Wolfgang Galliard as Mime and
Wolfgang Koch as Alberich are each a menacing presence in their
own right. Fortunately, they are easy to tell apart as well,
making it possible to work out what is going on in the third
scene of Act 2. Galliard has a tendency to slide around between
the notes, which can get annoying, although contributes well
to characterisation. Diogenes Randes is another appropriately
sinister presence in the role of Fafner. He doesn't quite have
the weight on those low, low notes, but otherwise is the ideal
singer for the job. Ha Young Lee sings the woodbird with lots
of vibrato, which could sound crass in other contexts, but gives
this role valuable colour. Falk Struckmann, probably the most
famous Wagnerian in the cast, is his usual dependable self as
the Wanderer. He is somebody we are hearing a good deal of on
disc these days, and with good reason – I'm looking forward
to his Amfortas from Amsterdam.
After two acts of good but unexceptional Wagner, this performance
finally takes off in the third. Deborah Humble is an authoritative
Erda, but even better is the interaction between Siegfried and
Brünnhilde that makes up the last half hour or so. Christian
Franz is a complex Siegfried. He has all the power, not to mention
the stamina, he needs for the many challenges of the role, but
he is at his best in the tender and quiet moments. In these,
he often drains the voice of all colour to approach a speaking
tone, giving welcome respite from the musical saturation of
Wagner's score. Catherine Foster is a British Wagnerian soprano
and she is very impressive indeed. The success of this third
act rests largely on the dramatic and vocal heft of Brünnhilde,
and Foster has both. Everything really comes together in this
last scene, with Franz and Watson providing the drama, while
Simone Young and the orchestra support the action, always keeping
an eye on the details, and never letting the balance go awry.
The sound quality is good, but again not up to the standards
achieved at Frankfurt. The singers don't seem to be as close
to the microphones, and often when they are upstage they can
sound very distant indeed. The recorded sound of the orchestra
also lacks immediacy. Fortunately, the clarity of the orchestral
sound doesn't suffer, with each of the sections clearly distinguishable
and with impressively relayed bass, especially from the lower
brass and bass clarinet.
From the production stills in the liner (which includes full
libretto and translation), it is clear that this is one of those
German regietheater-type Ring productions that usually get a
bad press when they arrive here on DVD. CD listeners need not
worry too much about that though. Apart from the distance from
the singers to the microphones, the staging has little noticeable
impact on the sound recording, with virtually no stage noise
or audience interruptions. A serviceable Siegfried then,
but not an exceptional one. There are no weak links in the cast,
the orchestra plays well, and the recorded sound is up to the
standards you'd expect from a German house. But nothing really
excels, and there are certainly more competitive recordings
on the market.
Gavin Dixon
Siegfried - Christian Franz (tenor)
